Change He's Been Waiting For
by haveyouseenmyhaggis
Summary: Owen remembers his childhood life. The day his Dad died... The day his Mum got a new boy friend... The day he left home. Angst. For the Mother's Day Post-a-thon. Set in series two and inspired by Owen's line in "Adam".


**Title: Change He's Been Waiting For**

**Summary: Owen remembers his childhood life. The day his Dad died... The day his Mum got a new boy friend... The day he left home. Angst.**

**Author's Note: This is**** for the Mother's Day post-a-thon. The theme is "Mother and Child." So if you want to take part, it's for any archive so please do! Mine is focused on Owen and his mother. It was inspired by Owen's line in "Adam" when they'd all been retcon-ed and he mentioned his Mum. So, here's my input to the post-a-thon. Enjoy and feed back is much loved.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _Torchwood._**

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"Mummy? Can't sleep," said Owen quietly wandering in to the kitchen. Maria Harper looked down and smiled at her son. It was the night before his fifth birthday. No wonder he couldn't sleep. She smiled at him and lifted him up on to the seat at the kitchen table.

_"How about we have a hot chocolate? Yeah?" Maria asked. Owen grinned happily._

_"Yeah!" _

"_Owen! Owen! Hey come here kiddo!" came his Dad's voice from the living room. Owen grinned and bounded through the hallway to greet his dad. It was his sixth birthday. _

"_You had a good day?"_

"_Uh huh!" Owen said as his dad swung him around and tickled him._

"_Maybe we can go out and play football tomorrow?"_

"_Cool! Yeah!" Owen said happily. But they never got to play football. Percy Harper had never come home the next night. He'd gone to work and never come back. He'd been killed. Machinery accident they'd been told. The factory had gone up in flames and Percy had died in hospital five hours later. Then everything had changed. _

"_Mum?" he called into the darkness around him, "Mum!" _

_Owen was seven. It was midnight and he'd woken up when he'd heard the thunder outside. He was scared but when he called out his Mum didn't hear him. If she did, she didn't care. She was ignoring him. She was probably drunk again. Owen waited a few moments before deciding she wasn't coming. He heard the thunder again and felt the tears straying down his cheeks. He didn't want to cry… He wasn't scared. He shouldn't be scared. It was only thunder. But he was scared. _

_Impatiently he wiped the tears away as he remembered the words that his Mum's boyfriend, Rodger had said, "Boys don't cry. Cheer up son or I'll make sure you have something to cry about."_

_The thunder came again and Owen clambered out of his bed and stumbled across the room intending to hide in the corner. He tripped over a train set on the floor and fell over. He lay there, too scared to move in the dark. He stayed there all night and it was a hard slap across his cheek that woke him up in the morning. _

_He'd always hated how that man called him "son" and then insisted he call him "Dad". Owen had never liked that. It felt like he was betraying his real Dad… The man that had left his life when he was six. When Rodger had entered his life his Mum had changed. She seemed to hate his existence. It was as though she didn't want him there any more. She had lost her job and there was barely enough money to go around. Rodger was unemployed for a year and that caused more arguments. If Owen was any where near them when they were fighting he often ran away. He hated it when they argued._

_If he got involved they would often hit him. Rodger hated him and made sure he knew it. Owen often tried to hide the bruises on his arms when he was at school. _

"_Secondary School…" he whispered looking at himself in the mirror. Now was his chance to make the best of his life. He could get qualifications. He could make a difference in the world. He could do something that his mother had never done. _

_Smiling slightly, he picked up his school bag and took one last look at himself; loose tie around his neck, hair ruffled stylishly and his cheeky grin firmly in place. Things might get better now. He tried not to think about how many times he'd hoped that things would change. Rodger was gone now, his Mum and he had split up. That had made things easier for a while until his Mum had started spending endless nights at the pub leaving Owen to fend for himself. _"_Get out!" his Mum, Maria had screamed at him in fury. It was two o' clock on his sixteenth birthday. He should be out celebrating. Instead he was being thrown out on the streets. He clutched his rucksack in his hand and stared helplessly at his Mum. _

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"_Mum? Why are you doing this?"_

"_Just because I love you…it doesn't mean I have to like you Owen."_

"_Where will I go?"_

_But she wasn't listening anymore. The door was closed. There was no going back. Owen wasn't to know that she was now leaning against the back of the door crying. She hated herself for hurting him like that but she couldn't cope with him any more. Everywhere she turned he was there…he looked so much like his dad and it hurt to see that. She'd been depressed and she'd done so much wrong and she couldn't afford to do that to him any more. She didn't want to. He was safer away from her. It was only later that Owen realised that her throwing him out had been the change he'd been waiting for. _

"NO!"

Owen sat up in bed looking around in panic. He was alone. He was fine. It had all been a nightmare. He knew it had all been real… It was all his life but it was in the past now. It was all over. It was a long way away now.

He flicked on the lamp suddenly not wanting to be sitting in the dark. He wiped his sweaty brow and threw the covers off his bed and buried his head in his hands.

After he'd regained some calmness he looked at the digital clock on his bedside table. Two in the morning. He sighed and shut his eyes tightly. It was Mother's Day.


End file.
